Who's Patient Zero?

Here's something I didn't expect to be doing today: battling fleas. 

So, a couple days ago I observed a bug or two on Zelda's little face. They didn't look like fleas to me but just winged gnat-type bugs. They didn't jump from her when I grabbed them but as a precaution I put some flea treatment on her. 

Fast forward a few days and this morning I came home from dropping Russ off at work and I laid down to snuggle with Ian for a few extra Zz's. He came up to me and pawed at his nose and I see a black bug on his nose. I quickly grab it because I'm already on alert from Miss Kitten's issue and it jumps from my fingers. 

Oh, crap.

Well, I didn't say that exactly if you know what I mean. 

I grabbed Ian and took him into the bathroom, took off his collar and applied some spot-on flea treatment to his shoulder blade area. I furiously vacuumed the downstairs, threw their cat blankets in the washer, searched my bed for more spots (luckily nothing... but I still want to wash my sheets), and decide to quarantine my cats to the downstairs like we do every night anyway. 

I went upstairs to make coffee and to greet Mom as she comes home from work. Gizmo is hanging out in the sunroom so I decided to check him for fleas just to make sure the quarantine is worth it. 

I parted the fur on the back of his neck and immediately saw a flea dive back into the fur forest. Yep, Gizmo had fleas too. 

A quick Google search will help you with everything you need to know about getting rid of fleas. Luckily for us, I think I caught it just in time like I did the first time Ian had fleas back when we first got him.

My easy, quick tips would be:

1.) Keep your cats and dogs up to date on their preventative treatments (which... I'm a bad cat mommy because I was a little lax the past few months).
2.) Wash pet bedding and anything and everything fabric that your pet lays on or is around constantly, in hot water.
3.) Vacuum. Vacuum. Vacuum. Put a flea collar in the vacuum bag or replace your bag after flea vacuuming (you don't want those turds coming out of the bag and back into your carpet!) 

I found something pretty cool though, on Pet Care Rx  you can search your area and find out the flea and tick risk. 

Which... apparently our risk is really high right now. 

Mickey seems to be the only one not infected... or affected(?) right now but I dosed him with treatment too. 

Then I gave them some kitty treats to make things a little better for them.